SANFORD — Voters elected political newcomer Fred Smith to the Sanford Town Council on Tuesday night and gave incumbents Alan Walsh and Richard Wilkins three more years.

Out of the 16,577 votes cast across the town's wards, Walsh took first place with 2,799 votes, or 17 percent of the finally tally, according to the unofficial results reported by Sanford Town Clerk Sue Cote on Wednesday morning. Smith, who owns a local recycling business, rose to second place with 2,521 votes, or 15 percent of the final total. Wilkins also collected roughly 15 percent of the final vote, with 2,434 nods.

While elected to the town council, Walsh, Smith and Wilkins all will become city councilors once they take their oaths at the turn of the year, as a result of voters also approving a new charter on Tuesday night. (Please see Reporter Ellen Todd's related story on this page.)

As for the Sanford School Committee, write-in candidate Jonathan Mapes garnered 728 votes for a clear win over fellow write-ins Louis Coluni and Ayn Hanselmann, who received 164 and 129 votes, respectively. All three write-in candidates threw their hats into the ring during the final weeks of the campaign season, as nobody submitted nomination papers in September in a bid to succeed longtime committee member Marguerite Herlihy for a three-year term. Herlihy opted not to run for reelection.

The results of two of the races to appear on Sanford's municipal ballot are now moot, once again as a result of voters approving the Sanford Charter Commission's proposed recommendations on Tuesday. Under the new charter, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2013, the town's finance committee and Town Meeting will be eliminated; in their place, a budget committee will be formed and voters will approve or reject proposed budgets by referendum.

For the record, though, here are the unofficial results: Nicole Gervais won 5,101 votes in her bid for a three-year term on the finance committee, and Wesley Davie received 4,388. There were five vacancies, but only Gervais and Davie appeared on the ballot.

As well, Charles Plante, Sr., Roland Cote and Douglas Spaulding were elected as Ward 1 Town Meeting members, with respective votes of 897, 895 and 703. Peter French got 12 votes to represent Ward 2. Susan St. John garnered 816 votes to represent Ward 3. David Bowles won 941 votes and Sheryl Jones got 826 to represent Ward 4. Judy Gibbs brought in 785 votes to represent Ward 5. At press time, there were not any votes to report for Wards 6 and 7.

In uncontested races, incumbents John Cochin and Paul Demers both secured another term as trustees of the water and sewerage districts, respectively. Cochin won 6,629 votes townwide, and Demers brought in 6,609.